This invention relates to an improved manufacturing method for enhancing the reliability of high performance gears. In particular, this invention relates to an improvement over the conventional manufacture of high strength gears that requires an expensive finish grind operation of the teeth of the gear.
The conventional manufacture of high strength gears entails a finish grinding operation to provide specified dimensions for proper meshing and the desired loading pattern. Because the contact or mating surfaces of high strength gears require a very hard structure for wear and fatigue resistance, the primary metal cutting method capable of performing the operation is grinding for high performance gears. Many impairments (grinding damage) in surface quality are inherent with surface grinding methods. These impairments include localized burning, structural transformation (untempered and tempered martensite) grinding cracks and removal of beneficial surface constituents and detrimental residual stresses, all of which reduces the pitting fatigue strength or surface durability of the gears.
One object of this invention is to provide a process for manufacturing a higher quality and more reliable gear at a lower cost.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved method for manufacturing gears that eliminates grinding operations with attendant surface deterioration.